Culture

Watch English Cricket Captain Joe Root Call Out Homophobia In The Middle Of A Test Match

Good on you, Joe.

by Tom Clift  14 February 2019
Joe Root calls out Shannon Gabriel over alleged homophobic slur

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English cricket captain Joe Root has been praised for calling out West Indies bowler Shannon Gabriel after Gabriel allegedly made a homophobic slur during a match.

The exchange occurred during the third Test between the two nations in Saint Lucia. Television microphones did not pick up what Gabriel said to Root, but they did capture the response, with the English captain taking his opponent to task for his choice of words.

“Don’t use it as an insult,” Root can be heard saying. “There is nothing wrong with being gay.”

Root declined to reveal what Gabriel had said, instead telling reporters after the match that Gabriel was “a good guy” but that “sometimes people say things on the field that they might regret”. He also said that “as a player you feel you have responsibilities to uphold on the field and I stand by what I did”.

Gabriel has since accepted a four-match ban handed down by the International Cricket Council for breaching its code of conduct by using “language of a personal, insulting, obscene and/or offensive nature”.

Root’s handling of the incident has received widespread praise, with former English captain Nasser Hussain tweeting that “his 12 words as a role model will be in the end more important than a Test hundred or possible victory”.